Energy summit to address California power crisis
From staff and wire reports
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top federal officials are expected to meet with California legislators in Washington on Saturday to agree on a plan to fix a critical electricity shortage that has plagued Californians since June.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier, among others, will attend the so-called energy summit, which comes a day after California's electricity-strapped power grid was under a Stage 3 alert.
The alert signaled that California's power reserves had dropped below 1.5 percent of statewide power demand, raising the possibility of rolling blackouts if reserves dipped any further. In a rolling blackout, electricity is temporarily shut off to a selected area for a short time. The alert was eased to the Stage 2 level later on Friday.
Also Friday, five governors of Western states urged California to increase efforts to produce more regional power.
"California is not an electrical island," the governors of Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Utah and Wyoming said in a letter to California Gov. Gray Davis.
"To a much larger extent ..., California needs to share the responsibility of building more generation plants with adequate fuel supply, electrical transmission facilities and gas pipelines and deal with the inherent environmental challenges that presents," they wrote.
After averting rolling blackouts, California utilities were looking forward to at least a few days of electric stability.
"Saturday, Sunday and Monday, because it's a holiday, are going to be much lighter usage days, and many of the units that went off-line earlier in the week will be back up over the weekend," said John Nelson, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
At a news conference with Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and Washington Gov. Gary Locke, Davis released details of a plan to cut California electricity use 5 percent by next week during high-demand periods.
U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson insisted on the plan before he extended an emergency order keeping power flowing into California.
For years, California has relied on neighboring Western states for some of its power needs. But rapid growth in those states -- and a subsequent increase in power demand -- caught California off guard for the decrease in imported electricity.
'Moving at warp speed'
Davis said California already consumes less power per person than 46 other states and is moving to build nine new power plants plus cut back more on energy consumption.
"We are moving at warp speed to increase (generation) capacity," he said.
"We need an opportunity for the markets to stabilize so that consumers in our states don't have to bear the disproportional burden of rising natural gas prices or undue profiteering," Davis said.
Kitzhaber said the problem is "not that California is not doing enough. People outside the region do not appreciate what California is doing."
Kitzhaber, Davis and Locke said Friday they would urge residents to cut electricity demand 7 to 10 percent, try to reduce power use by their state governments at least 10 percent and look into joining forces to buy energy-efficient products for state and local agencies.
Electricity prices up across region
Electricity shortages linked to California's deregulation of its power industry have produced soaring wholesale prices and sporadic threats of blackouts since June.
California's two biggest investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison, blocked under the 1996 deregulation law from passing the rate hikes on to their customers, say they have lost more than $9 billion because of the increases and a freeze on retail rates.
The energy crunch has extended into Oregon and Washington, where consumers are seeing increases of 50 percent or more in electricity and natural-gas rates in some areas.
Locke said his state may soon be on the side seeking help from its neighbors.
"We have very low water in our 2,900 reservoirs because of a low rainfall this winter, as well as very low snowpack," Locke said. "And so we're very concerned about our ability to have enough energy in the spring."
Representative seeks regional cap
Meanwhile, a California congresswoman said Friday she would introduce legislation to give the U.S. Energy Department authority to impose a regional cap on wholesale electricity prices to ease runaway power prices that have drained the cash of the state's two biggest utilities.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat who represents the state's Silicon Valley area, said the legislation would also require utilities and other power generators to make refunds to consumers for any excessive profits.
CNN San Francisco Bureau Chief Greg LeFevre and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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